The distance between the Endless Snow Mountain and the World Tree was truly massive.
After all, the Endless Snow Mountain was still considered to be around the periphery of the 3000 Beast Mountain Range while the World Tree was the direct center.
But its distance from the center by no means meant that it was weak. The hierarchy between the mountains was much more complicated than that.
With powers like the White Dragon Grotto and the Ice Phoenix Palace situated on the Endless Snow Mountain, the mountain itself could be ranked among the peak powers between mountains.
But the way powers took root within the mountains had nothing to do with camaraderie. It was usually because the environment was best suited for their own practice that they chose specific mountains to set up their homes.
Due to this, there was never a true ranking of power between the mountains. Since the forces within them weren't actually allied, there was no real point in having something like that.
Individual power was always more valued, and this rule stayed true for the powers in the 3000 Beast Mountain Range. Rather than allying with outside powers to become stronger, they'd rather compete for the hierarchy among individual powers.
Anyway, with the distance between the mountain and the World Tree being so large, even with the White Dragon King's insane speed, they had already been traveling for a week without arriving.
Although Damien wanted to look at the passing scenery and the other mountains within the mountain range as they flew, the White Dragon King was no longer taking his time to fly like the first time they had done so.
Instead, he was using his full speed as a true Beast King, reaching a level where Damien couldn't even infer what the scenery outside was due to the sheer speed at which they moved.
All he saw was a mash of colors that sped by in a flash. This kind of speed was insane. Even amongst 3rd class beings, Damien's eyes were special. For him to be in such a predicament was testament to this fact.
But since Damien and Ruyue were covered in the White Dragon King's mana, they didn't have to worry about the dangers that come with them traveling so fast without the proper strength.
In this kind of situation, a second week passed before the White Dragon King finally decided to slow down. It was then that Damien was finally able to witness the world once more.
"…Woah."
It was the only sound he could make out when he saw the scene in front of him. Ruyue wasn't much better.
If the vitality they felt from the World Tree when they first entered the 3000 Beast Mountain Range could be considered a 5, then what they felt now was a 100.
That was the sheer level of difference between the two. The billowing vitality rushed into their bodies, refreshing and nourishing them passively by just being in its presence.
The World Tree was towering from the outskirts, but only now was its true size visible.
Five massive mountains encircled it in a star-shaped formation, piercing the clouds above and seemingly even reaching into space.
But even these mountains were dwarfed under the size of the World Tree. Perhaps it didn't have their girth, but it wasn't losing out by much.
The tree trunk was so massive that it could probably cover the entirety of some smaller countries on Earth with room left to spare. Its height, if laid down on its side, could most likely connect the Americas to Europe with ease, spanning the entire Atlantic Ocean.
They were still thousands of kilometers away from the trunk of the tree, but the sun wasn't visible even at this distance. Instead, there was a wide and all-encompassing canopy of branches and leaves that painted a beautiful mosaic.
The density was such that proper sunlight couldn't travel through, but the few rays that made their way served to add even more ethereal presence to the atmosphere.
It was like a fairy garden.
It took many minutes for the duo to snap out of their reverie, and by the time they did, the White Dragon King had already landed on the ground.
They weren't much closer to the trunk of the World Tree, but in front of them, there was a massive city that was situated there. It spanned those thousands of kilometers that connected their current location to the tree trunk.
"What the hell? People actually live here?"
"Hahaha, I know it seems inconceivable, but yes, there are truly people living here. This environment can be considered one of the best within the entire mountain range, but this group of people has actually managed to monopolize it."
As they spoke, they started walking towards the city. The darkness brought by the lack of sunlight was slowly illuminated by a green glow, and when Damien looked up into the air, he noticed many floating green specks of light that decorated the atmosphere.
"These things are something akin to fairies, but they don't have the intelligence that the fairy race possesses. They just wander and float, bringing light to the darkness as well as nourishing the environment. The tree dwellers seem to love them, though." The White Dragon King said.
As they arrived closer to the city, Damien was finally able to make out the silhouettes of people walking around and going about their daily lives.
They were oddly humanoid, but the auras they radiated obviously weren't at the 4th class. They aren't beasts? Damien was immensely confused.
But as he continued observing them, he noticed a curious detail that almost sent him into a state of shock.
"Those are…!"
"Haha, they aren't humans, if that's what you're thinking." The White Dragon King said, misunderstanding the reason for Damien's shock.
But no, he never thought they were human. After all; there was a distinctive feature that set them apart from the human race.
They had long pointy ears that Damien was incredibly familiar with due to his time on Apeiron.
'Elves! There are actually elves here! What the fuck, isn't this supposed to be an Eastern Fantasy setting?!'
That's right. The citizens of the city that the White Dragon King had been calling "tree dwellers" were actually elves. And it wasn't just a small group of them, there were millions of them that made up the population of the city.
'How can this be?'
Damien was flabbergasted. Even if he knew it was stupid to think of the real world as something he could gauge using fictional knowledge, he knew that there were still some truths behind it.
The fiction on earth was definitely motivated by true world travel, and the settings depicted were only slightly tweaked. Adding elves to a cultivation world, though, that was a total mixing of genres.
He began to have doubts. Although elves weren't a rare race in the wider universe, they were still extremely particular about the type of world they lived in.
Perhaps, this group of elves was attracted to the World Tree and decided to migrate? But with the restrictions placed around the 3000 Beast Mountain Range, this seemed impossible.
Yet, this was a land of beasts. There was no way for elves to be naturally born or even for an elf-esque species to naturally evolve from the population present here.
The entire matter made Damien's brain hurt.
